Minion Craze or Portal Pleasure

This encounter remains to be one of my groups most favourite and is still talked about to this day.

The room has no monsters except for minions, the general goal is to disable all the portals, and activate another one so the party can leave

Each blue square is a portal. And are far enough a part it’s hard for the wizards to make it to one each turn

At the start of combat and on each minion’s initiative, every active portal summons in a new minion who goes immediately.

To disable a portal requires someone to be adjacent to it, standard action, arcane {Trained} check DC [(5 per tier) + 15]

The pit in the room should be at least 10 feet per tier, and is used by the minions.

This encounter can go on for a few good rounds since the players need to climb back up and in, and it can get out of hand fast since 12 minions per round are going to be spawning in. But it is loads of fun for everyone

I used a Modified Groom Guardian, only difference was it had Fly (hover). I recommend the same but adjusting it for whatever level you need.

**Rules note: I’m not sure about the rules of teleporting something in air, but it is one of those things that as a DM you should allow in the case of the monster because it is indeed an attack**

Groom Guardian: Demonomicron Page 93: http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/monster.aspx?id=5105

Used the forced movement luke

or how i stopped worrying and learned to love the warlock and the wizard.

In our group we have a warlock and a wizard, our group in general works as a team, 90% of their powers are focused on helping one another.

The wizard and the warlock (Richard) have came up with a move called the Dick Maneuver (short for Richard)

In the following examples i show very specific spells, however it is not always like this, both casters tend to have other spells they can use. This battle is against Scallymag, a Large solo troll.

Wizard goes first

Casts Stormage

Initial Damage = 4d6

Wizard spends action point

Casts ray of frost to slow target

Warlock Goes

Casts Hungar of Hardar

No Initial damage on target

Warlock spends Action point

Casts Diabolic Grasp

2d8 damage

Moves Target 7 squares (infernal pact)

Warlock Move 1

Target moves into Hunger Zone

Takes 2d10 for damaging

Warlock move 2

Target Moves into Stormage

Takes 10 damage

Warlock Move 3

Target moves into Hunger Zone

Takes 2d10 for damaging

Warlock move 4

Target Moves into Stormage

Takes 10 damage

Warlock Move 5

Target moves into Hunger Zone

Takes 2d10 for damaging

Warlock move 6

Target Moves into Stormage

Takes 10 damage

Warlock Move 7

Target moves into Hunger Zone

Takes 2d10 for damaging

No matter how far the target moves here (slowed), next turn the warlock casts harrow storm, to do 2d10 and slides the target 11 squares to repeat the process.

Total Round 1 damage

Stormcage = 4d6 + 30

Hunger = 8d10 damage

Ray of frost = 1d6 damage

Diabolic Grasp = 2d8

Round 2 adition

Stormcage = 70 (initial 10 for target starting next to wall)

Hunger = 10d10 damage

Harrowstorm = 2d10 damage

Grand Total 2 rounds damage: 5d6 + 2d8 + 20d10 + 100 damage

Now before i get people saying well yeah but they can only do this once a day. No there are more powers that the players use to dish out this kind of damage.

This is just an example to show the power of forced movement and zones.

I believe this is just another reason to show why solo's are a bad idea, because they are limited to the amount of actions they can take vs a well equipped and team oriented party.

Encounter: City a Flame

A band of evil creatures were hired by a unknown source to lay waste to a local village. The party arrives just in time to save a small section of the town.
Tiles: This encounter uses tiles from DU2





















Large Map Flickr, Picasa

Encounter Level 11

Party Size: 4-5
1 Fire Achon Emberguard (A)
1 Bloodfire Harpy (B)
4 Legion Devil Hellguards (H)
1 Neldrazu (N)
1 Flameshard (F)

Party Size: 6-7
(S) Death Priest of Orcus with Scion of Flame Template

Setup
The party arrives just in time to see the villagers have been trapped in three burning buildings. The Two small buildings each contain 10 people, and the larger building contains 20 people. The characters can start off in any square in the green highlighted area on the map they wish. Each monster here has resist fire 20 even if the book does not state it.

You need to inform the players that for them to rescue people from the building, they need to be standing in at least one square of the building and spend a standard action to save 1d4 people.

When the PCs arrive read:
The heat and smoke fill the air, screams of villagers can be heard in the distance over top of the harpy's burning song.

Tactics
The Hellguards are busy making sure no villager tries to escape, when combat begins two near the Emberguard will attack the same target as the emberguard, while the other two will team up on another armored looking character. The bloodfire Harpy will stay ranged ensuring maximum usage of her aura, and attack to defend herself. The Flameshard is there to burn, it will continue burning the building until something attacks it, then it will attack the first creature that attacked it. Once bloodied the Flameshard will try and get in the largest concentration of players as possible for its big explosion power. The Neldrazu starts off hidden, its job here is just to ensure the task is done and report back to its dark masters. It will wait and try and kidnap a caster or lightly armored player and begin its attacks. If bloodied it will flee.

if the Death Priest of Orcus/Scion of Flame is in the encounter he will stick to his ranged attacks and use his dark blessing trying to get the Hellguard buffed.

Features of the area

Green Area: Players can pick any square in this area to start
Fountain: Now just rubble Destroyed
Small Buildings: Contain 10 villagers
Large Buildings: Contain 20 villagers
Flames: Roll initiative for each building, on the buildings turn, add 1 square of flame to a small building, and two squares of flame to a large building.
Illumination: Depending on the time of day, but due to the fire the players should have no problem seeing anything.


Note for DMs: Don't forget the fire, i have included the stats here which add significant challenge to an 11th level party.

Encounter: A Quick One

An encounter for five 10th level adventurers
2900 xp

Q: Quickling Runner - 9 Skirmisher, 400xp
X: Quickling Rogue - 10 Elite Skirmisher, 1,000xp
R: Quickling Renegade - 10 Skirmisher, 500xp
Z: Quickling Zephyr - 14 Lurker, 1,000xp

Yellow: PC's can start in any of these squares

Green Patch: Thick bushes, quicklings get full cover if inside, can move in and out at normal speed. Players cannot move in

Green Wall: Thick brush separating the road from the encounter


Brown Statue: Tree stump, cannot be moved through, can be used as partial cover for small creatures.

Setup:
The party while traveling pass an outcropping, but don't pay attention to it until someone thinks they see something or hear something (anyone with PP over 20) this is actually a quickling who ran past them, he of course warns the others.
Weather & Illumination: Up to Dm, this is an outdoor encounter that occurred in the middle of the day with no strange weather.

Tactics:
Simple and straight forward, the quicklings will try to hide and use cover the best they can, and constantly moving & using the Quick Cuts attack. If stuck in a situation they will use their fey shift to get out of the area. The Zephyr will flee combat as soon as it becomes bloodied. The rogue will flee if bloodied and another quickling is down but he will try and use his Knockout attack whenever he can on the biggest looking player. (see Xixxit from DCI)

Treasure: Up to DM

Let me know how your party fairs against this encounter, my group was able to take it out in 4 rounds.

Encounter: Undead Trolls

Encounter Level Difficulty: Standard (3000 XP)
5 PCs Party Level 10

Setup
Illumination: The trolls having darkvision tend to live in the dark and do not have any light sources in here.
Rubble: The rubble (blue dots) is considered difficult terrain
Stalactites/mites: These can be used as cover form the war troll
Bridge: the bridge is covered in water, and extremely slippery. Any PC moving over the bridge requires a DC 22 Acrobatics check. If the PC fails by 4 or less they fall into the underground river and are swept away.
Underground River: PCs can attempt to jump the underground river, failing by 4 or more causes them to fall in. PCs have a forced movement of 6 squares a round. And need to make swim checks DC 18 to stay where they are.
Treasure: The vampire has 1 black pearl (500 gp)

This encounter includes the following:
(T) 3 Boneshard Troll Skeleton – Level 11 Brute, 600xp ea
(S) 1 War Troll Vampire Lord – Level 11 Elite Soldier, 1200xp

Tactics
The WTVL will stay on top of the rock and fire arrows and use dominating gaze for the first round or two using his combat advantage. He is standing on a pillar. He waits until a PC decided to pick on him, or is singled out. When he moves towards the target, the BTS put themselves in-between the WTVL to make it harder for the party to get to their companion.